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Duncan MacRae of Kintail's Lament. 4 parts in Kilberry, 3 parts in the PS. Nice melody and the fingering isn't tricky. No taorluath or crunluath in those settings but another version has them (Colin Macrae of Invereenatís Lament).

Not sure if complexity is a concern, seeing as you said this is for a new pupil. But Lament for the Little Supper is a nice sounding tune, which is just Ground, Taorluath (singling and doubling) and Crunluath (singling and doubling).

So that's 5, I suppose .. depending on whether you count the taor and crun singlings and doublings as separate parts? I'm assuming that you do.

Reason I was wondering about complexity is for that one, it's a breabach (sp?) ... so that might be weird to get one's head around (it certainly was for me .. it was my 2nd piobaireachd), and it also has D movements, and plenty of high Gs. So again, not sure if that's good for someone starting out, but I didn't want to assume.

I was also recently introduced to the Park Piobaireachd #1. Two parts, and that's it. No Taorluath or Crunluath variations. Still not a short tune though ... those parts are quite lengthy. I think the time to play the tune is something around 10-12 minutes, depending on the way you draw things out.

Then there's Salute on the Birth of Rory Mor Macleod. Just 4 parts, none of which are Taorluath or Crunluath variations. Jim McGillivrary has it as the first tune in his book "Piobaireachd Fingerwork." Of all the tunes I've mentioned here, I think this is probably the easiest of them.

Donald MacLeod's Field of Gold is probably the single best tune for what you want.

The melody is beautiful.

It's got four parts. Urlar, Var I (S), Taorluath, Crunluath.

The urlar has a thumb variation inside it, and the Crunluath features both types (standard and fosgailte). There is probably no other tune that packs as much of the piobairached form into so few notes.

Duncan MacRae of Kintail's Lament. 4 parts in Kilberry, 3 parts in the PS. Nice melody and the fingering isn't tricky. No taorluath or crunluath in those settings but another version has them (Colin Macrae of Invereenat’s Lament).

Paul Hinson

I played this at my first competition last year. I don't get lessons in piobaireachd specifically, so I learned it by listening to recordings and reading the setting from the Piob. Society. I played it with the two variations, then repeated the first line of the ground, and when I was done the judge told me that I had "skipped" a variation! I almost said, "the same one John Burgess skipped?" but decided not to be a wise guy. I didn't know about it, and now that I've looked it up I don't like it, so I hope it doesn't count against me because I intend to play the same thing this year. It's still a solid 7+ minutes of playing, which is fine for a newbie I would think.

Anyway thanks to everyone in this thread, I'm looking to learn some more piobaireachds, but don't feel up to playing a crunluath variation publicly yet, or a long piece.

I played this at my first competition last year ... I played it with the two variations, then repeated the first line of the ground, and when I was done the judge told me that I had "skipped" a variation! I almost said, "the same one John Burgess skipped?" but decided not to be a wise guy.

It would be a good idea to tell the judge from the outset which setting you intend to play. If it's in the PS books with the 3 variations, then I find it very unlikely playing it that way would count against you, provided the judge knows what you're intending to do.

That being said, I don't know anything about this tune. But I have played some tunes which are different from Kilberry to PS, and I've had to clarify at the beginning what I'm playing.

And I'm glad you weren't a wise guy. Really, the judge doesn't have to say anything to you after your performance, apart from "thank you."

Glad you might have discovered some new tunes from the thread. Happy piping!

I think it depends on two things: where your student is on the musical/technical axes, and whether or not your student intends to compete with this tune.

With regard to the first consideration, some people might prefer starting with a tune such as The Pretty Dirk (2 parts), which is sort of medium on music and medium on technique. Others might prefer The Old Woman's Lullaby (3 parts), which might need more musical thought than the Dirk but has almost no technique to worry about (unless rodins are a problem, but they can be played kind of big). Others might prefer Lament for Alasdair Dearg (5 parts) because it has a relatively simple, easy-to-follow, melodic ground and then they can just S-M-M-S their way through the rest (no cadences), while getting to play rodins, dres, daris, darodos, hiharins, taorluaths, crunluaths, and even "the Viscount movement". In the same vein, but a little less technically challenging, is Sir James MacDonald of the Isles' Lament (4 parts).

With regard to the second consideration, I don't know what EUSPBA judges would make of someone submitting The Pretty Dirk. It would probably be better, if competition is a goal with this tune, to play something such as in the list of six tunes mentioned in an earlier post.

Speaking of that list, I've only tried to teach two people and, with competition and music both as goals, I started them on MacIntosh's Banner (7 parts: U, V, V', T, T', C, C'). It has a lovely melody punctuated by very natural, easy-to-approach cadences in the singlings.